A collection
Desert Country
The wildlife of the American Southwest — species shaped by heat, scarcity, and the long view. From rattlesnakes in the rocks to the future companions of this collection.
Desert country is a school of adaptation. The plants store water in their tissues, the mammals burrow against the heat, and the reptiles use the daily temperature swing as the engine of their metabolism. The species here are built for the Sonoran, the Chihuahuan, the Mojave, and the Great Basin — the four North American deserts that between them cover much of the country between the Sierra Nevada and the Rio Grande. This collection will grow as the field guide does — rattlesnakes are the first to land, and the roadrunners, jackrabbits, and Gila monsters of the Southwest are on their way.